Trail hunting exposed as a smokescreen for fox hunting

Trail hunting exposed as a smokescreen for fox hunting

The League Against Cruel Sports is calling on lawmakers to sit up and pay attention after senior figures within the fox hunting lobby were caught on camera appearing to admit that ‘trail’ hunting is a “smokescreen” for the chasing and killing of foxes.

The explosive revelations were contained within a leaked Zoom training meeting involving those involved at the very heart of hunting and more than 100 hunt masters, representing more than half of the country’s fox hunts.

The League Against Cruel Sports has dismissed trail hunting as a smokescreen for illegal hunting ever since it was created in the wake of hunting with dogs being banned 15 years ago.

Now the hunters have been caught out admitting trail hunting creates “the element of doubt” that has allowed them to get away with hunting wild animals even when taken to court.

Chris Luffingham, director of campaigns at the League Against Cruel Sports, said:

“This is huge. This finally seems to be an admission from the hunting lobby that they’ve been ignoring the law for the past 15 years.

“It’s what we’ve been saying since ‘trail’ hunting was invented after the Hunting Act came into force in 2005 – that it’s a smokescreen for real hunting.”

The footage was released on Friday evening by the Hunt Saboteurs Association.

The League Against Cruel Sports has compiled 677 reports which pointed to suspected illegal fox hunting, witnessed by members of the public across England and Wales during the last fox hunting and cub hunting season.